What a champ!

Roman's ear tube surgery was today. Mamí thought it was going to be really difficult getting Roman to fast from midnight to the next day. His surgery was scheduled for 7 am today. The nurse that handled the phone check in, let Mamí know that Roman could have formula up until midnight. So maybe stayed up to feed Roman his last bottle at 11:45 pm. She didn't mind because it reminded her of how she used to give Roman a dream feed at around 10:30 pm. the baby whisperer book had a suggestion that if you cluster feed (every two hours) your baby ( not before 6 weeks) before bedtime (ie.. 6 pm & 8 pm) , and then nursed or bottle fed him at 10:30pm while asleep. This would help keep baby from waking up hungry until five to six hours later. may not seem much, but Roman was feeding 2 or 3 times a night from birth to 3 months old.
It was such a peaceful time to just stare at Roman while he nursed and slept in Mamí's arms. We stopped dream feeds when Roman was about 5 months. He was able to get all his nutrition needs during the day.


Anyway, Roman did very well today. His surgeon said he came to an cried a little but when we saw him in the recovery room he seemed just a little grumpy. After a nursing session, he was back to his old self! These pictures were of him later today after his surgery. A little tylenol makes him happy!

What weaning me? No problem!

Its official, Roman is now on 100 percent formula. We started to wean him due to mami's job schedule and mami wanted her body back. At first we thought he would not take kindly to the fact that mami's milk was not going to be an option anymore. Since, he took Mamí's pumped milk in bottles at school, it was an easy switch to formula for those feedings at the beginning of the month. Mamí had also dropped the nursing session at lunch due to the legislative session in January making her lunch hour unpredictable. The remaining (morning and evening) were the hardest. Not for Roman but for Mamí. He didn't seem to care. I supposed it was easier because he wasn't used to falling asleep while nursing. As you can see from the picture, he will drink from his bottle happily!Now that he is on formula, mami can sleep in late on the weekends. daddy can feed Roman his first bottle ( 5:30-6am), without Mamí working about her milk supply! This way Roman can take his early nap with Mamí later on.

2 more months!

Roman is now two months away from his first birthday! We can't believe how time has flown by. We had an appointment today with a Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) doctor today. Roman's ear infection hasn't cleared up and the liquid in his ear is affecting his hearing. An audiologist performed some tests today and determined that Roman's hearing is not where its supposed to be. We had to weigh the option of Roman constantly being on antibiotics or have ear tube surgery. As terrifying as it sounds to have our baby under anesthesia, we didn't want Roman to have to suffer anymore pain or digestive issues. So we scheduled his surgery for March 7th. He will be in surgery for about 10-15 minutes. Mamí is probably the one that needs to be strong. Roman's been a little fussy but he can still manage to have fun.

Ear Infections 6 & Stomach Virus 1 & Pink Eye 1, Roman 0

Poor Roman! This week has been so rough for him. Not only has his ear infection not cleared up (#6), but he got a stomach virus on Saturday. It was not pretty, the combination of the super one dose Antibiotic and the stomach virus totally messed up his digestive system. For the first day, he could not keep anything down. Then the next day, he could drink but it went right through him. Pretty messy stuff. Diaper change after diaper change. we wish we had pictures to show. Roman's grandma had to come and help us out. Mamí had to return to work and Grandma took really good care of him.. almost too good...

let me be!

Maybe Roman will crawl. Why are we (ok only mamí is) so obsessed with him crawling?

Road trip!

ok. so it wasn't that big of a road trip. This weekend we drove to Houston to visit with Roman's cousins Drew, Alex, and Isabella. Roman's grandparents were also in town to meet up with Aunt Patty from New Orleans. We all got together to celebrate Drew's 8th birthday! Roman got to play with his cousins and since we didn't see them at Christmas the kids got to open our presents.

Roman wasn't feeling so hot on the way to Houston. And we couldn't figure out why, he seemed to want to nurse constantly. Well, Roman's grandmother suggested we get him some teething tablets/gel for him. We did and he was so much better. total personality change! He already has four teeth so we should of known!

Crawling is so not necessary!

Roman discovered how to pull himself up on his crib with the help from the bumper on his crib a few months ago. But it isn't until now that he has tried to pull himself up to cruise around the house. We don't think he will ever crawl. He just seems to want to go straight to walking...

Super Bowl time!

Roman's grandfather visited for 16 hours during Super Bowl Sunday. Mamí's cousin who just moved to Austin from Washington, invited Pop to ride back with him from a visit to the valley. They arrived in time to watch the game, and Pop returned to the valley the next morning.

Roman was very excited to hang out with Pop. They had a good time exploring the house the boys watched the big game. You can see that Roman is not wearing Chicago Bear gear, but Daddy's favorite basketball team. Mamí was sad that the Bears lost. bummer!

Check-up Time!

Roman's 9 month check-up was today. We thought he was due for some vaccinations, but what was due was another flu shot. He did get some bloodwork done. A lab technician had to prick his finger to get the necessary blood. He was a champ about it. No crying or fussing. They bandaged his finger and Roman tried to eat off the bandage. We were worried the doctor would ask about crawling. Roman just refuses to crawl. He can pull himself across the floor on his belly!

9 month stats!
Head circumference 95 Percentile
Weight: 23 lbs 95 percentile
Height: 27.5 75 percentile


Since he is now officially over the weight limit of his infant car seat (as seen in pic), we had to move on to the convertible car seat. We got Britax Marathon for mamí's car (full price at babyrus, ugh! forgot a coupon at home) and got a good deal on the same type w/ a discontinued color on the internet for daddy's car. That way we don't have to worry about switching out the car seat from one car to the other.

9 months old!

Roman turned 9 months old today! Wow.. we can't believe he is almost a year old. This evening we met up some parents and babies at our first Bradley reunion. It was held at the Children's Museum downtown. Many thanks to Jason and Rachel for arranging the location and great pizza! We brought along salad to share. Of course, we forgot utensils. But another mommy thought ahead and came prepared. Here are pictures of him exploring the baby corral they have reserved just for infants. We were worried (ok. only mami was) that he was the only baby not crawling, but when we left he waved bye, bye to everyone. very impressive we were told!

Splish, Splash!

Cabin Fever!

As the rest of the city shut down during the Austin storm 2007, we stayed indoors for about 4 days straight! Roman was getting bored so we took him out for a few minutes to see the slight flurries. He tried to taste it.

We also had to get creative though! so he had fun hanging out in a laundry basket.

Ugh! Another Ear Infection!

Well, Roman got another ear infection. This is his 4th since he was 3 months old. He is now 8 months old. But he is a champ about it, eating and sleeping ok. He doesn't seem to slow down.

We were supposed to visit his aunt Patty in New Orleans this weekend (MLK weekend) but both Roman and daddy were not feeling 100% so we postponed. They took this time to relax and get better.

New toys!

Roman got some new toys from his cousins in Houston for Christmas. He is still in the phase of putting everything he can get his hands in his mouth.

Happy New Year!

Prospero Año Nuevo!

Mamí, daddy, and Roman celebrated New Year's Eve by getting dressed up and heading out to dinner. We went to Suzi's Kitchen nearby. It was great. Roman was a perfect dinner companion. He had his meal (pureed mixed vegetables/rice cereal with breastmilk) and then tried some white rice. He hasn't really perfected his pincer grasp (which lets him pick up small objects between his thumb and forefinger) but he gives it the old college try. Check out the pics. daddy thinks that he looks like an Amway salesperson looking to close a deal!

More wrapping paper!

Since we weren't able to travel to visit Mamí's family for Christmas, we guess the silver lining is Roman has been getting to open gifts even after Christmas. His Aunt Sandra, Uncle Hector and cousins sent the coolest toy that he can grow up with. He wasn't feeling good this weekend, but nothing like wrapping paper to make him feel better. He also got an oufit but he had an accident and will have to post a pic later.

Total Score!

Roman totally scored this Christmas. Of course, he was much more interested in the wrapping paper and bows. He was a bit surprised that he was allowed to play with paper. He usually wants to grab the mail and newspapers, and we don't let him.

Check him out with is new toys!

Our favorite is of him eating his new shoe.

Feliz Navidad!

We haven't posted in awhile due to some unforseen circumstances. Eric had the flu for about a week then it got worse to the point that he had to be hospitalized for 8 days for pneumonia. His condition worsened until he had surgery to remove some liquid from his chest cavity. Thankfully, the surgery went well, and he was able to come home on Christmas Eve. He is recovering at home with us. We missed him terribly!

Thank you to everyone for the offers of help and the support we received from our friends in the form of dinners, babysitting, and errands completed during these past weeks. Your help was greatly appreciated!

We couldn't travel to valley to spend Roman's 1 st Christmas with the Hernandez/Roman crew, but we had an intimate family Christmas. Roman's aunt Patty stayed with us until dec 26. She helped us with everything from housecleaning, shopping, and taking care of Roman. thank you for everything!

check out the rest of our Christmas pictures www.romannapoleon.shutterfly.com

Last month's photo session

I forgot to add a post about Roman's first professional photo session that was done last month. He was great! His limit was 30 minutes of posing. which I think is pretty good for a 6 month old. But what do I know.

I have posted one of his shots. Doesn't he look like he is seriously posing... I can't post more because of photographer rules... But you can go to pictage.com (www. use a different window) and enter Roman, October 2006 in the event lines. If you are interested, you will have to sign in with a user name/password.